I am sat opposite NewMan on a hard metal seat and my carry on case is tucked protectively under my feet. My eyes are parched from tears shed for those I'm leaving behind. The smallest part of me aches with anxiety that I'm making a big mistake. The rest of me pulses, alive with excitement ready to get acquainted with the unknown.

I know this was a year ago. I know that this was a very different Birdie and I now know that it was the start of the biggest change in my life.

Back then I thought five months would be enough; I assumed that was adequate time to scratch an itch. It didn't occur to me that an itch could grow, could stretch out across your body, expanding and swelling, becoming a life of its own. Well, that's what happened to me.

I'm one big rash of wanderlust.

But it's a calm want, a soft need. I do not desire to see every country, I know I cannot see everything and I'm not in a mad rush to go where I want to go. It's just incredibly liberating to know that I can do what I want, when I want to, within reason. Most simply put, I'm living a life less ordinary, from one place to the next.

My partner, NewMan, and I run our lives and businesses on the move, meeting and beating the challenges this brings but also benefitting from the advantages, which so far keep the balance tipped in its favour. I am as much committed to this lifestyle as I am to abandoning it if or when it no longer works for me or for us.

The most ironic thing of all is that I have never felt more settled.Thank you for sharing my journey with me, dear reader. I hope this list, which must surely be just a fraction of the many things I've learnt over the last twelve months makes you laugh, makes you smile and maybe makes you think about how many unknown brilliant things await you when you make even the smallest of changes.

That campervans are fun, especially when shared with your best friend. But just check they don't leak first in order to ensure full happy camper status.That true friends find happiness in your own, even if it means you are missing from each other physically.

Frances M. Thompson

Londoner turned wanderer, Frankie is an author, freelance writer and blogger. Currently based in Amsterdam, Frankie was nomadic for two years before putting down some roots with her Australian partner and having a baby boy in July 2015. In 2017, she launched WriteNOW Cards, affirmation cards for writers that help build a productive and positive writing practice. When not writing contemporary fiction, Frankie shops for vintage clothes, dances to 70s disco music and chases her son around Amsterdam.Find Frankie on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Google+